Palls into Insignificance.

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Esprit

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In all my years, I have used the expression above, but recently I hear people using the expression "Pales into insignificance".

Pall - to become uninteresting.

Pale - to become feeble.

Surely the term Pall is more in keeping with the expression?

Your comments please.
 

emsr2d2

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"Pale" makes perfect sense to me and I have always heard and used "to pale into insignificance". If you imagine that something important has fairly strong colours, is quite vivid to look at and then imagine that thing becoming paler and paler in colour, I can see how that would relate to it losing its importance.

For anyone who has seen the film "Back To The Future", you will know that when it looks as if Marty McFly has messed around with history so much that he might well wipe himself out of existence, he notices first that his image in a photograph is starting to become paler and paler, then he holds his hand up and realises that he can see through it, as if it is becoming translucent and starting to disappear. He is beginning to pale not only into insignificance but out of existence entirely.
 
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